Tuesday September 1, 2009 4:46 pm

Chew #4 Gets Weirder

Following up an issue where our protagonist finds love in the midst of ubiquitous regurgitation (among other delightful surprises) would be difficult. That is, of course, unless you’re John Layman and Rob Guillory.

Chew #4 begins with an expected and humorous Applebee-loathing-Chu scene; yet, the rest of the issue takes a path dissimilar from what we’ve seen in this series so far, quelling any doubts (if there were any) that Layman and Guillory can’t keep us interested. In a very Lost fashion, the last issue gave us Amelia, E.G.G., and the creepy guy with a box, only to leave us to our theories as this issue produces a number of different, unrelated (or not?) questions.

This issue, despite my not thinking it possible, gets so much stranger and weirder, making for a very scrumptious read.

The story starts as Senator Hamantaschen winds up dead with drugs, alcohol, and a pound of half-digested chicken in his body—Savoy and Chu are on the case. While they could have easily discovered their answers with a bite of the corpse, the pair run into a major problem that makes their job rather difficult (in other words, they’re forced to rely more on their detective skills).

The duo end up on an international telescope, set to observe planet Altilis-738. With a $34 million budget for a $3 million job (thanks to the senator), the Russian and American astronomers and scientists operating the telescope have fallen into a bad partying habit. Just when Savoy and Chu are on the verge of gathering information as to why Hamantaschen wants the crew to watch Altilis-738, dynamite, guns, and bikini-clad Russian women interfere with their crime-solving.

Russian dialogue bubbles stretch for a few pages (Babblefish failed me), although the very few English words are probably most important; with that, we see that Savoy knows a great deal more than he’s letting on to Chu (or us, for that matter). To top it all off, the last two pages left me (and will most likely leave you) in a state of WTF-ness—I LOVE it.

Now go grab a copy of Chew #4 tomorrow and stop at nothing when you do, even if bikini-clad Russian woman with guns cross your path. It will be worth it.